1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image compensation apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an image compensation apparatus and method which can reduce the deterioration of the quality of images even when the supplied and/or the consumed power of a display device decreases.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display module is an essential part of a display device which actually displays images. The power consumption of the display module usually accounts for most of the power consumption of the entire display device.
Recently, display devices equipped with a display module that supports colors have been commercialized. In general, color display modules consume more power than black-and-white display modules.
Display modules may be largely classified as emissive type display modules and non-emissive type display modules. Emissive type display modules can self-generate light while non-emissive type display modules require an additional device that can generate light, such as a backlight unit.
Generally, a user may change the brightness of a display device when the display device is too bright or when the intensity of an external light source is too high for the display device. A display device that is too bright often causes eye fatigue, and an external light that is too intense decreases the visibility of images displayed by the display device.
The image properties that affect the visibility of the display device include brightness, luminance, grayscale, and chroma. However, when a user changes the brightness of the display device, the visibility of images is often ignored. Accordingly, the visibility of images displayed by the display device is reduced.
Similarly, when the brightness of a display device varies due to the display device's internal problems, the visibility of images displayed by the display device may also decrease. For example, when there is a shortage of battery power for a display device when a user views images displayed by the display device, the brightness of the images may decrease and result in a decrease in the visibility of the images.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop methods of maintaining the visibility of images even when the brightness of the images is decreased by the shortage of power supplied to the display device.
Korean Patent Publication No. 2004-54118 discloses a related art method of controlling power of a mobile communication terminal to reduce unnecessary power consumption and maximizing battery time. The method determines one or more high-picture quality items that need to be displayed with a high picture quality, determines whether the input data is a high-picture quality item, controls the brightness of the input data to have the same brightness level as that of a predefined high-picture quality backlight brightness level if the input data is a high-picture quality item, and controls the brightness of the input data to have the same brightness level as that of a predefined low-picture quality backlight brightness level if the input data is not a high-picture quality item. This method, however, does not suggest ways of compensating for the decreased quality of an image caused by the shortage of available power for a display device.